Antique Books

This new edition takes its role seriously as the only significant guide of its kind on the market. International tool authority Clarence Blanchard has assembled the definitive guide showcasing 700 large color photos and 2,000 listings of tools from the late 18th century through the middle of the 20th century, with actual prices from recent tool auctions. Among a myriad of other items, the guide features braces, bits, drills, edged tools, hammers, levels, machinery, planes and scrapers, rules, squares and gauges, saws, tool chests and benches. Readers will also enjoy coverage of advertising, displays, salesman’s samples and ephemera.

Small bronze figures, made in Vienna, Austria, beginning around 1850, are well known for their great detail and expressiveness. They were produced in small factories and private artist studios in the forms of animals and humans, and were exported to sell in New York, London, and Paris. Depicted here in over 650 brilliant color photos are cast bronze birds, camels, cats, dogs, horses, bears, bulls, reptiles, and rodents as well as humans figures from around the globe and many professions. Figures integrated into lamps are also displayed. The informative text highlights major artists and firms that produced Vienna bronze figures, and values are included in the captions. Antique and figurine collectors will find much pertinent information in this new study.

In Allan's giddy fourth antiques mystery set in the Midwestern Mississippi River town of Serenity (after 2008's Antiques Flee Market), Vivian Borne persuades elderly Nastasya Petrova to contribute her Fabergé egg to a charity auction for Serenity flood victims. When Madam Petrova dies in a mass poisoning at the auction and someone pushes the winning bidder for the Fabergé egg, a Chicago art dealer, down a spiral staircase to his death, Vivian and daughter Brandy swing into dizzy detecting mode. Brandy must cope with morning sickness (she's a surrogate carrier for close friends) and digest the news from her biological mom that her biological dad is a U.S. senator, but these distractions don't prevent Brandy from getting closer to hunky Serenity police chief Tony Cassato as more bodies pile up. Auction tips and a recipe for spicy beef stew enhance this satirical cozy. Allan is the husband-wife writing team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

At the start of Allan's lively third antiques mystery (after 2007's Antiques Maul), divorcée Brandy Borne and her eternally glamorous if somewhat annoying mother, Vivian, are busy preparing for the Christmas rush in the small Midwestern town of Serenity. Then Walter Yeager, a fellow antiques dealer, dies of cyanide poisoning soon after it becomes public knowledge that the WWII veteran owned a valuable first edition of Tarzan of the Apes, which disappears from the crime scene. Walter's 20-year-old British goth granddaughter, Chaz, becomes the top suspect due to her prison record, but Brandy and Vivian believe she's innocent. Told primarily from Brandy's viewpoint with Vivian sneaking in quips for extra pizzazz, this bubbly tongue-in-cheek cozy also includes flea market shopping tips and a recipe. Allan is the pseudonym of the husband-wife writing team of Barbara and Max Allan Collins. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

How can you tell a genuine antique from a fake? How can you spot if something has been restored? What marks should you look for? How can you recognize styles? How can you tell one maker from another? Antiques Investigator gives you all the confidence and know-how you need to approach any antique-be it a vase, a teapot, a chair, or bear!

Although neither of these guides to antiques is particularly scholarly, McKenzie's is certainly more credible (albeit less fun to read) than Loomis's. McKenzie provides useful tips?not only for the business pro but also for the flea-market junkie?on how to rummage for, buy, and sell antiques and on how to establish a profitable business, with suggestions on such matters as calculating inventory turnover and handling tax records. He provides information on how to do minor repairs on collectibles and also offers guidance on major restoration projects, such as rebuilding old trunks or resilvering mirrors. The writing is straightforward, the advice is practical as well as easy to understand, and the book would be of interest to most antiques buffs. The title of the Loomis book pretty much sums up its content. While it does offer tips on "the hunt" and subsequent bargaining (and the etiquette of dealing with sellers), its primary focus is on the dating and identification of a wide variety of antiques (everything from World's Fair collectibles to Shaker furniture). While Loomis's breezy style may annoy some, readers familiar with his television appearances and videos will probably find this book enjoyable. Because his information is occasionally contradictory (he asserts, for example, that porcelain was first produced in Europe at the Meissen factory in Germany in 1709; two pages later he states that the French made porcelain in 1673), this book should not be considered an essential purchase unless there is patron demand.?Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After her divorce, Brandy Borne heads back to the small midwestern town where she grew up only to find that her mentally ill mother, Vivian, has sold all the family's antiques to unscrupulous dealer Clint Carson. Before Brandy can reclaim the family heirlooms, Carson is murdered, and both Brandy and Vivian confess, each hoping to protect the other. When it becomes clear that neither of them is guilty, Brandy investigates. This mystery offers a likable heroine whose first-person narration draws the reader into the story, which includes subplots concerning the somewhat strained relationship between Brandy and her much older sister and the challenge of living with a flamboyant mother who is quite eccentric when she doesn't take her medication. Humor, though sometimes somewhat forced, laces the narrative in this first in a promising series. Readers of Sharon Fiffer will enjoy the antiques frame, including various tricks of the trade addressed to the reader at the end of each chapter. Sue O'Brien
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

This lavishly illustrated and enthusiastically written guide to modern collectibles is another success by Prisant (Antiques Roadshow Primer), capturing on the printed page the excitement of the top-rated PBS television series Antiques Roadshow. An excellent introductory essay, "Collecting 101," is a helpful look at the field of collecting itself that includes some tips that even the most experienced collector should remember ("Work on self-discipline"). But this is clearly a book for the novice, and Prisant makes it clear that this is not a definitive work but "a brief overview of the types of collectibles that are brought most often to Antiques Roadshow." Her selection is impeccable, and she provides highly informative chapters on ceramics, advertising, glass, sports collectibles, toys, fashion and textiles, dolls and doll accessories, wristwatches, photography, entertainment memorabilia and furniture. The true beauty of this volume is the hundreds of photographs of the collectibles themselves, everything from Picasso-designed pottery and Miriam Haskell necklaces to a Lou Gehrig-signed baseball and one of Mr. Spock's outfits from Star Trek. Even the more experienced collector will be surprised at the range of artifacts produced in the 20th century.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The simple but brilliant attraction of the popular PBS series is that deep down inside, everyone wonders if that family heirloom or flea-market antique in the corner of the living room has any real value. Antiques Roadshow Primer can help you answer that question. Carol Prisant, who writes about antiques and collectibles for Martha Stewart Living, House Beautiful, and New York, quickly notes in her introduction, however, that this is a primer--an introduction to the basics of antiques--and does not presume to make the reader an instant expert.

In that vein, the focus is on the bread and butter of the antique world: silver, glass, pottery, porcelain, books, paintings, jewelry, rugs, clocks, and furniture. These are the items that are not trendy (Barbie dolls, 1920s beaded bags) and subject to massive fluctuations in price and value. Instead, Prisant points out, they are the types of items that are good for the long haul and, she notes, the front hall. So how do you determine if an heirloom is worth something? The following tips are offered when inspecting furniture: run your fingers underneath or over the back of the piece--very sharp edges and corners indicate recent manufacture. Remove one screw in some inconspicuous spot. An old, handmade screw will have irregular widths between the spirals, running the whole length of the shaft. The slot in the head may be off-center. Look for the distinctive curved pattern left in sawn wood by the teeth of a circular saw--it is one important sign of manufacture after 1840.

Prisant also reveals tricks of the trade for inspecting diamonds: place the gem against your upper lip, she advises. If it's glass--the oldest imitator of a diamond--it will not feel cold at all, while a real diamond will. Definitions are also offered for "antique furniture" (any object 100 years old or older, according to the U.S. government), "used furniture" (secondhand furniture less than 100 years old), and "period furniture" (made when its design was first popular and new; generally the most valuable of antique furniture). At its best, Antiques Roadshow Primer instills a sense of genuine interest and enthusiasm, much like the PBS show, by making the antiques and collectibles world less of a stuffy discussion about an untouchable item behind lock and key and more about drawing connections to the heirloom in the corner. --John Russell

In Cleland's engaging third Josie Prescott mystery to feature the New Hampshire antiques dealer (after 2007's Deadly Appraisal), Josie is stunned to learn that her fun-loving friend, Rosalie Chaffee, has been found, drowned, on the Rocky Point shore. When it becomes clear Rosalie was a victim of foul play, suspicion falls on Rosalie's boss at Heyer's Modular Furniture, his scheming wife and Rosalie's gorgeous volunteer fireman boyfriend. The warm, endearing Josie decides not only to investigate but also to take care of Rosalie's 12-year-old sister, Paige. Aided by a large support group of well-drawn characters headed by her police chief boyfriend, Josie follows such clues as an old diary, an artist's palette and a misplaced tote bag. Among other antique lore, readers will learn the difference between a highboy and a tallboy in this cleverly crafted cozy. Author tour. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The notion of retrieving a bit of the past-by owning a material piece of it-has always appealed to humans. Often our most prized possessions are those that have had a long history before they came into our hands. Part of the pleasure we gain from the encounter with antiques stems from the palpable age and the assumed (sometimes imaginary) cultural resonances of the particular object. But precisely what is it about these objects that creates this attraction? What common characteristics do they share and why and how do these traits affect us as they do?

In Antiques: The History of an Idea, Leon Rosenstein, a distinguished philosopher who has also been an antiques dealer for more than twenty years, offers a sweeping and lively account of the origin and development of the antique as both a cultural concept and an aesthetic category. He shows that the appeal of antiques is multifaceted: it concerns their value as commodities, their age and historical and cultural associations, their uniqueness, their sensuous and tactile values, their beauty.

Exploring how the idea of antiques evolved over time, Rosenstein chronicles the history of antique collecting and connoisseurship. He describes changing conceptions of the past in different epochs as evidenced by preservations, restorations, and renascences; examines shifting attitudes toward foreign cultures as revealed in stylistic borrowings and the importation of artifacts; and investigates varying understandings of and meanings assigned to their traits and functions as historical objects.

While relying on the past for his evidence, Rosenstein approaches antiques from an entirely original perspective, setting history within a philosophical framework. He begins by providing a working definition of antiques that distinguishes them from other artifacts in general and, more distinctly, both from works of fine art and from the collectible detritus of popular culture. He then establishes a novel set of criteria for determining when an artifact is an antique: ten traits that an object must possess in order to elicit the aesthetic response that is unique to antiques. Concluding with a provocative discussion of the relation between antiques and civilization, this engaging and thought-provoking book helps explain the enduring appeal of owning a piece of the past.

This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the pagan cultural legacy and Christianity. While previous scholarship has seen Christian reactions to pagan educational culture as the product of an empire-wide process of development, Edward J. Watts crafts two narratives that reveal how differently education was shaped by the local power structures and urban contexts of each city. Touching on the careers of Herodes Atticus, Proclus, Damascius, Ammonius Saccas, Origen, Hypatia, and Olympiodorus; and events including the Herulian sack of Athens, the closing of the Athenian Neoplatonic school under Justinian, the rise of Arian Christianity, and the sack of the Serapeum, he shows that by the sixth century, Athens and Alexandria had two distinct, locally determined, approaches to pagan teaching that had their roots in the unique historical relationships between city and school.